Bhopal: Social networking sites are often perceived to be a tool of remaining engaged in unfruitful activities which keep us busy doing nothing. However, there are youth who are using the technology to save lives.
These youths found that blood of rare groups where not even preserved in hospitals and at the time of need people were in deep trouble arranging them. Here in Bhopal, Nikita Raikwar, a student of Nutan College came up with the idea of creating a WhatsApp group to spread message of blood donation which soon turned into a movement of sorts, through which as many as 500 units of blood has been donated.
“We started the group last year where donors are informed through messages as soon as we receive information related to need of blood. The group members started adding others and now we are having presence on WhatsApp and Facebook, and have a society registered for the same under the name Blood Life Saviour,” she said. “Even when we did not have donors in Bhopal, donors from Hoshangabad and Itarsi contacted us for the cause,” she added.
“The B negative group, which is among the rare category groups, is also arranged by us six times a year,” she said adding they had a member who had Bombay blood group which fell in the category of rarest of the rare.
“We have provided our contact numbers to hospitals and even given it to the tea stall owners outside,” Raikwar said. She recalls a case where a dengue patent needed four units of platelets and the group arranged that which saved a life.
The idea of spreading information through social networking sites was an amazing thing as any information was just a click away, said Kaleem Khan who runs Disha Ujala Lakshya group.
Khan said, “We have given our contact numbers to almost all the hospitals in city and whenever we receive information about anyone needing blood, we try our best to arrange it. Even when there is requirement for negative blood group we ensure it and in last one year we have seen around 20 such cases where negative blood group was required and arranged by us.”
